Tag Archives: Cooking

One thing I’ve realized, and many of you probably would agree with me, is that the kitchen is the most popular and used room in a house. All of Abby’s friends love to hang out in the kitchen specially when Cynthia is cooking.

Champagne, “I am so tired.”

After Champagne helped Cynthia prepare a delicious meal, she was very tired so she took a nap. She is probably dreaming about food.

Champagne, “What? Time to eat? Yay!”

How interesting, and funny, that once it was time to eat the above beautiful girl woke up right away. I think that both, dogs and humans, enjoy hanging out in the kitchen. What room is the most popular/used in your house?

For those of us that have furry kids, preparing a meal – heck, even making a sandwich- feels like someone put up a sign that says, “Kitchen help wanted,” and our canine companions never fail to answer such ad. Look at the attention they are paying Cynthia.

Abby, “Mom left the food unattended. Not to worry, I’ll guard it closely. Roxie, “I’ll make sure nobody goes beyond this point.”

Cynthia moved to get something from the fridge, and her two helpers quickly moved into place to “guard” our food. Abby seems to be the more serious out of the two, don’t you think?

Abby to Roxie, “Let me help you. I think you have a little bit of food around this side of your face. Why do you have to be so tall?”

I don’t know, but perhaps Roxie started to smell like something Cynthia was cooking because Abby took a lot of interest in Roxie’s face and ear. It’s always fun to see what our furry kids do when we are cooking. They certainly make life more interesting.

This was the first year that I did not see Cynthia cook for hours on end. For a change, this Thanksgiving day she decided to cook less things and take a nap. That is something unprecedented for her, but I was glad. Every year she asks me, “Why do you think my feet and legs hurt me?” To what I respond, “Because you’ve been on your feet cooking for hours.” And then she says, “Oh,” as if she has not asked me the same question year after year.

Anyway, one tradition for sure we have in our family/pack is to take pictures every year. Why? Aside from the memories we are able to immortalize, the year we didn’t take pictures we had a yucky year to say the least. Alex, of course, even after 12 years with us has not learned how to pose. But you know what? That’s ok. At least we get to laugh at the pictures we “tried” to take of all of us.

After we all ate, yes Alex got to eat turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and veggies, we went out for a walk to see if we could burn some of those calories.

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For those traveling back home, have a safe and uneventful trip, and for those already at home, take a nap, you earned it.

Let me start by saying that I started to feed Alex and Bella human food, at the beginning, always in small quantities, Also, neither one is allergic to any of the ingredients I use, and if you are planning to start feeding your dog human food and have any questions about it, please talk to your vet or better, to a holistic vet.

Tonight, for Alex and Bella’s dinner, I cooked a stir-fry using the following ingredients:

1 chicken patty and 1 sausage patty

Cilantro

Celery

Carrots

Cabbage

Peas

Ginger – only for Alex’s arthritis

I started by cooking all the veggies together, except for cilantro and ginger, for a couple of minutes. I then added the chicken and sausage patties to it.

Why am I feeding them human food? I’ve been reading a book, Pukka’s Promise by Ted Kerasote, and he provides excellent information regarding what goes in the kibble many of us, pet parents, buy and feed our dogs. Because of it, I started to feed Alex and Bella a mix of human food and kibble. Again, I started by adding very small quantities in order to avoid upsetting their tummies. Right now they are both eating twice a day: 1/2 cup of kibble + 1 cup of human food.

Do you know what I’ve noticed now that they are eating more human food than kibble?

Alex – My Picky Eater

Her appetite in the morning has opened up

Her mobility and flexibility has increased a great deal. So much so, that now she walks next to me rather than lagging behind

She used to do #2 up to 3 times a day and it was smelly. Now she does #2 once or twice a day and the smell is minimal.

Bella – My I’ve-never-met-a-meal-I-had-not-liked girl

She used to do #2 four (4) times a day, and the smell was horrible. Right now she only goes twice a day and it hardly smells

Her mouth does not smell

This, human food and kibble, may not be for all dogs. I had a friend whose dog became quite ill if he ate any human food, even if it was only a bit of it. If you have questions, please ask a holistic vet and transition your dog slowly to any new food. Before I forget, I also rotate the kind of kibble I feed them every couple of months. If you have any recipes, I am always on the look out for new ones, you’d like to share with us, please do so.

I recently read one of my favorite blogs, Marking Our Territory by Will and Eko, and although I’ve never met them, I felt a sense of fellowship with Will. Why? He wrote that Eko, Will’s dog, is his anchor. Alex, my pit bull mix girl, teaches me every day to appreciate the little things that I know would go unnoticed if she were not to be in my life. I am a better person because of her, although to be quite honest if you were to ask Alex she’d say, “My mom is a work in progress,” and she’d be right.

If I were to try to enumerate all the things I do because of Alex, I’d probably have a nice thick book, but here are just a few of them:

I don’t feel guilty about taking naps anymore

I don’t go clubbing 3 times a week and instead I spend time at home with my girlfriend, Cynthia, our dogs Alex and Bella

Cynthia and I argue every blue moon. Before we had dogs, and this is the truth, we argued like cats and dogs

I cook for Alex, and let me remind you that I hate to cook. This is something Cynthia points out to me with a big smile on her face

Alex has been my canine companion for almost 12 years, and you know what? I’ve been very lucky to have her in my life. Will said that Eko is his anchor. Well, Alex is the one being that finally got me to settle down, and that was something that I never thought would be possible. A big thanks to all the dogs in my life for their love, loyalty, patience, and so much more.

For some odd reason I keep typing 2014 rather than 2013. Boy, talk about being ahead of time. Anyway, I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving along with your furry children and family.

One thing we always do during Thanksgiving is take a lot of pictures. One year we failed to do so and the following year was not a very good one. We took so many pictures and only one came out pretty good. Most of them looked like the above photo.

After we finished our Thanksgiving dinner, we fed Alex a nice portion of turkey, Cynthia took the most inner part of the turkey that did not have any seasoning, and mixed it with her kibble, and you know what? That girl inhaled her food. By the way, do not feed your dog turkey, chicken, pork, etc., in large quantities. The only reason Alex got a nice helping of turkey is because I mix her kibble with human food on a regular basis, lately 1/2 kibble 1/2 human food so she is used to it and I always make sure that there is no seasoning added to her food. Alex, in the above picture, got inpatient and was leaving because Cynthia was taking too long to put the turkey away.

Of course she made a U-turn when she saw Cynthia getting ready to put away the turkey for she wanted to “help” her with this task. What a helpful child. Can you see how attentive she is? We had a great Thanksgiving because we were all toghether and we hope all of you did the same.

Last week, I took Alex to the vet so she can get some vaccines and since I know my girl gets very stressed out every time we go I decided to approach this visit a little different than usual.

This is how Alex and I approached this vet’s visit:

I asked for the first appointment at 9am as to minimize the amount of barking dogs Alex would be able to hear

I gave her breakfast after the vet visit was done. Some dogs toss their cookies when they are fed and not long after that are exposed to too much excitement, stimulus, people, etc.

Once we got to the vet’s office, I parked my clunker and took her for a 1/2 hr. walk. This helped decrease some of her anxiety

Before the vet saw Alex, she got on a scale to get her weight. I used treats and training commands such as, sit, stay, wait to get her to stay on the scale

Once the vet and vet tech came in, I saw that Alex was anxious so I started by getting her attention by calling her name and giving her treats

I was really surprised and quite pleased with our last vet visit because although she showed signs of being stressed, they were on a lower scale, and it was easier for the vet and her vet tech to do their job.

Once we got home, I took her to the back, our deck, brushed and wiped her, and after that she went straight to her bed while I was making breakfast. Cynthia took the above and below pictures a couple of minutes after Alex went to bed.

So tired

Something else that surprised me was that she ate a big breakfast: chicken soup, 1/2 cup, and kibble, 1 cup. For Alex, my picky girl, that is a lot, but she ate everything. All our previous visits to the vet were followed by Alex eating very little if nothing at all. What did my girl do after having such a big breakfast? She went back to bed. Lights out moms.